ITIL career path

[metoo87]

I work as an Oracle DBA in a major metropolitan area in the US. My job is going away. My company contacted me about moving into an environment architect position and and mentions moving into enterprise architecture. They also mention my specific skill set as someone for the chnage. There is alot of ITIL in the job req. I have not talked to anyone about this. I don't know anything about this career path. I did a few google searches on ITIL and skimmed the outline on wikipedia.

I have quite a bit of experience doing DB architecture and working on architecture teams in the past (not at this company). Though I don't really know what an environment/enterprise architect is. It sounds like its higher level. People who work more with making sure the different pieces work together.

ITIL looks like a general process framework in the same frame of CMMI. Is that relatively accurate?

What is this type of career path like? I have worked in my field for a long time and I am very senior. Oracle work is generally one of the highest paying specialization in IT. Do you know what compensation ranges are like? I have a hunch this would be a pay cut.

It looks like alot of this work is engagement related. So you spent a few months in one place then move onto the next. This implies extensive travel. Is this accurate?

What are the career paths in this type of profession? I know I am being vague, but I don't know anything. What is the compensation range?

How important is the ITIL certificaiton? In my profession, virtually no one cares about certification. It looks incredibly expensive. I saw one site that said $20,000-60,000 to go all the way through and $5000 for the basic one. Is that accurate? Do employers typically pay for this?

have not talked to anyone yet., Just thought I would ask some questions.

[UKVIKING]

Metoo87

An Oracle DBA is a more technical role than one in IT Service Management

ITIL as you have found is merely a framework - at best... It is merely a set of advice (better practices) on how to do IT Service Management.

ITIL consists of 26 processes. of which the most obvious and most common are Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Configuration Management

The Service desk is a function that manages the IM process. In addition, there are several processes - Request fulfillment, monitoring etc that are also there

If you are a Oracle DBA doing support for an Oracle based application, you are part of the IT SM process - most likely as a Incident resolution team member as you most likley get tickets to action / resolve / restore service

Now for the courses / certification path

Getting certified in ITIL can be done. All exams are linked to courses (classroom - virtual or physical) except for the Foundation. You only have to take the exam for that. It gives a broad overview of ITIL - hence the title

Check Amazon for a ITIL Foundaiton study guide by Liz Gallacher.

Now.. the big question... should you get all of the certification to expert ... Why ? Are you getting out of techincal and going for admin / mgmt / process ?
Is there more money in ITIL higher level... maybe.. if the person has the certification and the experience... probably.. otherwise nah
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter